BRIDGES-COFFEA missions

Scientific surveys and exploration of wild coffee diversity in Madagascar

As part of the project Bridging the Gap Between Knowledge of Biological Resources in the Coffea Genus and Crop Improvement in the Face of Global Changes (Bridges_Coffea), several field missions have been conducted in Madagascar to better document the diversity of wild species within the genus Coffea.

These scientific surveys focused on two regions that are particularly important for the diversity of endemic coffee species on the island. In northwestern Madagascar, the missions targeted species belonging to the Baracoffea group, which are mainly associated with the dry forests of this region. In southeastern Madagascar, observations and field activities focused on Mascarocoffea species maintained in collections, which are characteristic of the humid forests of the eastern and northern parts of the island.

These missions contribute to documenting the diversity of Madagascar’s wild coffee species and support the academic research conducted within the Bridges_Coffea project. The information and biological resources generated through these field activities will help produce reference genomes and transcriptomes for several species of the genus Coffea.

These genomic data will be used to better understand the evolution of genome structure in Malagasy coffee species, analyze structural variations, investigate the evolution of key biosynthetic pathways, and contribute to the construction of a genus-level super-pangenome for Coffea. Ultimately, this research also aims to identify the genetic bases of adaptation of wild coffee species to contrasting environments.

For more information about the BRIDGES_COFFEA project, please visit the official website: https://www.bridgescoffea.org/